


The Eternal Leap

by bjdunkelfuck



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Blood & Gore, M/M, Multi, Quantum Leap AU, Supernatural (TV) Lore, Time Travel, Vampire!Dan, Vampires, leaper!Michael, like ones specific to them, observer!Ryan, some other people are vampires, vampire!Monty, vampire!gavin, vampires with special abilities
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-28 11:51:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2731391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjdunkelfuck/pseuds/bjdunkelfuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several years ago, Dr. Michael Jones stepped into the quantum leap accelerator and vanished. He found himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Ryan, an observer from his own time that appears in the form of a hologram that only Michael can see and hear. And so Dr. Jones finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right was wrong.<br/>or A Mavin Quantum Leap AU where Michael is a very smart little bb who figured how to time travel with Ryan's help and ends up stuck leaping around time. Then he leaps into a vampire in the 50s, the one and only Gavin Free. Of course at the time he has no idea that he or any of his companions are vampires. When he leaps again, it's 2003 but Gavin's still there, right in front of him, like he hasn't aged a day. It takes a while for Michael to understand what's happening.<br/>But then weird things start to happen during the leap and Ryan still isn't sure what Michael is there for. Michael gets so attached to Gavin, he isn't sure he wants to leap again, isn't so adamant on getting home anymore and now, he's left with an incredibly difficult decision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deathbysandblk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathbysandblk/gifts).



> Alrighty so the idea for this fic came during this summer while I started re-watching Quantum Leap b/c one of my best friend, Emma, was talking to me about it. So like I do with everything ever, I started coming up with a quantum leap mavin au b/c i am mavin trash. Anyway, I told Emma one of the few different ideas I had and she was so excited about the plot i had that i began writing it. She has given me so much encouragement and been a wonderful beta so I would like to take a moment to say how awesome she is!! Now, I have the prologue (which kinda explains quantum leap for those who haven't wached it and gives a little background info) and the first part finished up and edited so i thought i'd post it uvu I'm not sure how many more chapters there will be but it'll be from 2-4 probably??? so i hope you enjoy what there is now !!!

Michael nervously fidgeted with his tie as he and Ryan stepped into the huge room filled with people in fancy and probably extremely expensive attire. He had been dragged down here by Ryan, because apparently Michael had that “golden boy charm” and they needed that if they were ever going to get enough money for their project. So Michael shifted uneasily as he let his older companion drag him around to smooth talk some of the richer people.

Later on, they were pushed onto a stage with a huge screen behind them and Ryan handed him a huge stack of papers. He quickly realized it was all of their research for what they'd come to call “Project Quantum Leap”. Ryan gestured to the microphone attached to the podium at the edge of the stage and Michael hesitantly shuffled over to it, clearing his throat before starting to speak.

He introduced himself and Ryan and started with the whole time travel idea quickly so he could explain himself. “When I say time travel, you think ‘ha-ha you’re so funny, now what are you really talking about’ but I’m being serious here. To keep as little confusion as possible, I’ll leave the really science-y stuff out. Basically time can be described as string. Your lifetime is a certain length of string and with the right workings, you can do something like this.”

He set the stack of papers on the podium and pulled a string out of his pocket, pinching it with his fingers to hold it in a straight line, “Let’s say this is your timeline and if you do this,” he brought either end of the string together and held them together with one hand, the other holding the other end of it. “Every moment of your life is touching. You, theoretically, could ‘leap’ from one moment to another one years from then. Your timeline is your only restriction. We are hoping to fix that restriction as the machine is created.”

There were murmurings throughout the crowd and he hoped to God they were good things and said a few more things before stepping back and letting Ryan walk up to the podium. He talked about the money and they both answered a few questions before they stepped off the stage and sat down at their table.

\---

Months had passed since that day and now Michael stood in Austin, Texas, right outside a huge building that housed everything they had needed for Project Quantum Leap. It still surprised him sometimes, how they had gotten so far from where they started, Michael was barely seventeen and Ryan was a drunk mess. Now they had millions of dollars put into something _they_ created, something they worked so many years for. He couldn’t be happier.

He walked down the hall that led to the main room, glancing inside the offices that were placed here and there along the corridor. He greeted the people that looked up from their work and eventually entered the main room.The room held a huge dark green machine on the left side that took up half of its space, it was what was going to allow them to move through time and they recently could add each of their timelines to it. This basically meant even though Michael wasn’t alive in the 70s, they had taken some of Geoff’s DNA (which had his timeline in it) to put into the machine so he could potentially travel to then, despite it being out of his own timeline. They also had taken some DNA samples from people alive in the early 1900s so that was their limit on how far back they could go.

The apparatus started whirring as Michael stepped inside, Ray switching it on from the control panel. The control panel consisted of a few screens and several buttons and flashing lights and Ray knew the thing inside out.

Ryan was behind Ray, fiddling with some wires on a speaker and some handheld device. Michael decided against asking Ryan what he was doing and went behind the whirring machine to the small dressing room that he had to squeeze his way into from how close the machine and the door were to each other. After the first attempt to test the machine, his clothes reacted very negatively to it so they (see: Jack) created a solid white skinsuit that protected against that. So Michael slipped out of his T-shirt and jeans and into the suit before walking back out into the main room.

He wandered over to where Ryan was still crouched and as he opened his mouth to ask him what he was doing, a loud crackle echoed through the intercom system and a cranky male voice spoke through it with with terribly concealed irritation. “Finally got the thing to work, you stupid fuck?”

Michael nearly jumped out of his skin at the noise and kicked Ryan in the thigh, “What the fuck was that, dude?!”

The older man blinked up at him then looked back at the handheld device as he responded, “Hey, Michael. The suit’s fitting you nice. When did you get here?”

“Like, five minutes ago. Answer the question, dickwad.”

“ _That_ was Church. It’s supposed to be our research system for records and shit, but-”

The voice screeched from the intercom again, “I’m a _he_ not an _it_ , you fucking asshole!”

Ryan rolled his eyes, “Shut the fuck up, Church.”

“Fuck you too, man.”

He waved his hand dismissively at the intercom and continued his explanation to Michael, “As you can see, he developed some sort of egotistical personality and-”

“ _Egotistical?!_ ”

Ryan completed ignored him and continued, “-sometimes insists his name is Epsilon, which I don’t understand but,” he shrugged, “whatever, I guess. Anyway, he seems to work functionally other than that. Here hold on, I’ll show you.”

He swiveled on his feet and touched Ray’s hip gently, “Input data for August 27th 1982 for me, hun.” He swiveled back around to the speaker and placed the cover back on, hiding away all the wires he was working with earlier.

Michael rolled his eyes when he saw the small flush of Ray’s cheeks as he pressed some buttons but he didn’t say anything and quietly waited for him to finish. When he did, Church started up again with an aggravated tone, “August 27th 1982: Admiral Ryan Haywood was found in prison camp in Vietnam and returned home. Wow, it’s all about you isn’t it, Haywood?”

Another voice entered the conversation from the doorway, “When isn’t it?”

Michael turned around to face the voice and smiled when he saw who it was, “Geoff! Hey, what are you-?”

“Came down to check out my favorite prodigy’s new project. Time machine, right?”

Michael nodded, “We’re testing it today, you wanna watch?”

Geoff looked over the huge whirring machine and back at Michael, “Sure thing, bud. You starting the test now?”

“Yeah, we just need Jack to-wait, where the fuck is Jack?”

Ryan shook his head, “I haven’t seen her today, I don’t-”

There was a crash in the hall and a few seconds later, Jack came skidding into the room, nearly ramming her head into Geoff’s back. “S-Sorry guys, I woke up late and I forgot I had the new part and-”

“Jack!” Geoff’s voice surprised the others in the room and made Ray jump.

Jack blinked up at him, “Geoff?” Before she could say anything else, she was wrapped in a hug.

“I haven’t seen you in _years!_ What have you been up to?” He released her after he finished his sentence.

Jack smiled sheepishly, “Well, this.” She gestured around her, “I joined Michael and Ryan’s crew after you, um, you know.”

Geoff rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, I… um, nevermind. Do you want to put on the new part or whatever? I did come to see the demonstration.”

“Oh! Um, of course.” She maneuvered herself around Geoff and set the small box in her hands on the floor by the large machine. She pulled it open and took the miniature, glowing sphere out, holding it gingerly in one hand as she twisted a panel open on the machine. She placed the sphere inside cautiously and closed the panel, pulling herself up and threw the now empty box at Ryan who tossed in the trash bin a few feet from him. “There, you can start now.”

Michael thanked her and walked over to the machine, pulling the door open to enter the white luminescent chamber. Once he sealed the door shut, Ryan and Ray started up the machine and Geoff and Jack stood next to each other to watch. The machine’s whirring increased to near ear-piercing volumes and Michael pawed at the walls to find the ear plugs so he didn’t bust his ear drums (literally). He ripped them from the little hanger they were on and jammed them into his ears.

Bright lights of every color began to blur his vision and he closed his eyes against it. It went silent and after a moment, someone knocked into him and yelled a curse. He jumped and opened his eyes to a crowded street, people bustling around him and the man who jostled him was stomping away. He blinked around and looked to his right to see his reflection in the window of an ice cream shop. Problem was it wasn’t _his_  reflection.

The reflection showed a tanned girl with long dark hair that curled in large ringlets and was covered by a wide brimmed hat. She wore a dark purple flapper dress and several pieces of jewelry from the necklaces hanging off her neck to the rings adorning her fingers.

Michael looked down at the more petite, darker toned hands he now had and back at the reflection. “Holy shit.”

\---

Ryan frantically ran around the control panel, pressing buttons here and there in a desperate attempt to bring Michael back to his own time. During the test, he was only supposed to be in the designated time for three minutes to test it out and then he was to return. He still hadn’t returned and it had been twenty minutes.

Ray followed him around, trying to be helpful and not accomplishing much. Jack was pacing the room and after four laps of the area, she jumped and ran out of the room and down the hall. Geoff ran after her to find out where she was going, leaving Ray with a distressed Ryan. After a tense ten minutes, Jack and Geoff came racing back into the room and began talking over each other.

Ray held onto Ryan’s shirt to keep him from flitting around and waved his hand around to stop Jack and Geoff. “Woah, fucking slow down you guys. One at a time.”

Jack clapped a hand over Geoff’s mouth and started her explanation, “Michael’s in the waiting room but he keeps saying he’s Lydia and he’s talking in a weird accent. I think he leaped into another time and another _person_.”

Ryan gave her a puzzled look, “You’re saying they switched minds?”

Jack shrugged, “In a way. I think that’s the only way we keep the balance.”

“So how the hell do we switch them back?”

Jack shook her head, “I don’t know.”

Ryan slammed his fist into the panel, narrowly missing an important part of it and Ray took both of his wrists gently, “It’s alright, hun. We can get Michael back.” He looked over at the other two in the room, “Jack, Geoff, find out everything you can about Lydia, what year she’s from, her last name, where she lived, anything and everything. Once you do, tell Church to do research on her. I have an idea on what’s happening.”

It took another twenty minutes to get information out of Lydia and get enough research to fuel Ray’s theory. “So it says here,” he pointed at one of the screens with a news clipping lighting it up, “that Lydia Martin was murdered three days after what she says is the current date. My idea is that Michael is there to help her not get killed, however that happens, and if Ryan can get the communicator working, we can tell Michael.”

Ryan blinked, “That sounds… reasonable. Here, just give me a second.” He rummaged around for the handheld device and began tapping the screen, yelling commands out to Church who grumbled but did as he was told. Once he seemed satisfied with the device, he pulled open the main machine and stepped into the chamber. “Start it up, Ray.”

The whirring picked up again and colors swirled around him, he stayed still until he could see the  inside of an ice cream shop and Michael. Well, he saw Lydia but he knew that Michael was in there. He approached him (her?) and sat down on the barstool next to his, “Michael, the machine did some weird shit so I’m gonna explain.”

And that’s how Michael got to where he is now.


	2. Chapter I

Michael squinted through the blue light as it faded around him and took a quick survey of his surroundings before he was thrown into the leap. He stood on slightly soggy soil in an almost cliche looking dark forest and there were several other people around him holding varying weapons in their hands. Some sort of fight must have broken out.

Still in the process of his leap, the blade in his own hand slammed down into the short man in front of him’s chest and Michael stumbled back from him, watching as he crumbled to the ground with a crash.

“Shit.”

There was a scream somewhere to his left that led to several yells and screeches of rage and hatred. A few people ran toward him but before he could do much else, a large hand wrapped around his forearm and pulled him in the opposite direction. He tripped over his feet as he attempted to keep pace with the dark haired man who had grabbed him.

The man dragged him through the forest for a quarter mile before they reached a clearing with a huge house that was illuminated by a single lantern by the front door. The dark haired man walked him up the stairs and switched off the light before swinging the door open and entering.

He dropped Michael’s arm and slammed the door behind him. “What the fuck was that?! I specifically told you _not_ to initiate any kind of violence, Gavin! You’re going to get hurt being so fucking reckless!”

Although Michael had no intentions of hurting that guy, he was Gavin right now and he did so he looked at the ground and sighed, “I know. I’m sorry.”

When he glanced up at the man, his face had softened. After years of leaping, Michael learned to read people for his own sake and this guy hadn’t expected “Gavin” to act like that, so submissive, maybe thought he’d been too harsh. There was plain guilt on his face. This Gavin guy must have been the rebellious type.

The man sighed, “I just- I don’t need you getting killed by those idiots six months after you started, you know? Those hunters are going to be on our asses for a month if we can’t get rid of them, one way or another.”

Ryan phased in a few feet behind him as the man finished off his sentence and stood beside Michael, giving a once over of the dark haired man and smirking a little before pressing a few buttons on the hand-link. Michael eyed him suspiciously but didn’t say anything to him and answered the man, “Yeah, I know. I won’t be so reckless. I-I’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick, alright?”

He nodded silently and walked off into another area of the house. “What’s the problem this time?” Michael hissed out as he walked down a hall, hoping he would find a bathroom so he wasn’t standing in a random area of the house talking to himself.

“Feisty today, are we?”

“Ryan, just- the information, please.” He sighed and entered the third door he opened which led into a bathroom, closing and locking it behind him.

He put his hands up in mock surrender, “Alright, alright. Your name’s… Gavin Free. The guy with the nice arms is Dan… Gru-Gruchy? Dan Gruchy, yeah. It’s October 7, 1954. Church doesn’t have too much info on these guys, but you apparently live with eight other people in this house. Dan, Barbara Dunkelman, Arryn Zech, Kara Eberle, Lindsay Tuggey, Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross and Monty Oum. Monty’s the leader of your little clan, I guess.”

Michael nodded as Ryan listed off the information and asked, “Do you know what Dan meant by hunters?”

Ryan shrugged, “Could be rivals? There could be some mafia shit going on.”

“Alright, that makes sense… Do you know what I’m here to do?”

Ryan slammed his fingers into the hand-link and shook his head, “Church hasn’t got anything.”

“Great.” He turned to face the sink and the mirror above it shown the man he had leaped into, Gavin Free. He was fairly attractive, his hair was wild like he popped out of bed and went off, but it looked nice. He had a nice tan unlike Michael’s pale as all hell complexion and some stubble but the nose was really throwing him off. Goddamn, it was huge.

“Least you leaped into a hot one, shame about the nose though.”

“Ryan, shut up.”

As Michael’s sentence finished, a slam sounded through the house as a door was swung open and crashed into the wall. Several voices echoed through the house and then a loud but all too calm voice called out, “Gavin!” and Michael knew he was in deep shit.

Ryan chuckled and opened the door to the imaging chamber, “I’m outta here, have fun.” He stepped back into the door and it closed in front of him.

Michael sighed at the empty space and left the bathroom to meet whoever had called out to him. Several people stood near the front of the house but as soon as they saw Michael they all filed away to other areas of the house, leaving an Asian man with his arms crossed over his chest and a slightly furrowed brow.

“Um, you called me?”

“Gavin, why did you stab that hunter?”

“I,um… I don’t-”

“You don’t know? You made the very conscious decision to put that blade through his heart. You know there’s been an increase in hunters in the area and we shouldn’t risk things. I know you’re new to this, but you can’t let rage overtake you, alright?”

Michael’s face twisted with annoyance, “You can’t keep treating me like a little kid, Monty. if those assholes want to fight, we’ll give ‘em a bloody fight.” he blinked at the words that fell out of his mouth before he could even think of a response. He must be having some crazy ass mind-meld with Gavin, he didn’t even know that guy’s name was Monty.

Monty looked irritated but not surprised in the slightest, “Technically you’re not a kid, but you only recently got turned and that makes you a child in a different way. Fighting the hunters will only make them hate us more, don’t you understand that? You can’t be so angry about them, they’re only human.”

The way Monty said “only human” made it sound like they weren’t and what did he mean “turned”? What the hell was happening in this leap?

Monty took Michael’s utter confusion as defeat and he sighed.

“Gavin, you-just… It’ll be easier in the future, alright?.”

“Um, yeah.” He pointed behind him, “I’m gonna go now.” he spun around, walking down the hall to find Dan. Hopefully he could ask him which room was his without sounding like too much of a lunatic.

Eventually, he found Dan in what Michael assumed was the man’s room. He had a hand mirror turned so he could look at his throat and Michael saw the gaping wound in the flesh of his neck that he somehow hadn’t noticed before. “Holy shit.”

Dan glanced behind him and smiled slightly, “Hey, Gav. Monty chew you out?”

“S-Something like that. Are.. you okay?”

Dan scoffed like it was insane for Michael to be worried about his wound, “I’m all good. It’ll heal up fine, it’s a neck wound though, you know how those are.”

“Do I?” he muttered more to himself but Dan heard him.

Dan turned in his chair to fully face him, “The neck is our most vital area, Gav, obviously. You know that… are you feeling okay?”

That look of guilt was on his face again and Michael resisted the urge to sigh, “Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Looking at you like what?”

“Like you killed my family and then burned down my house.”

Dan’s eyes widened and then he looked away from him, “I don’t do that.”

Michael rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Do you mind-uh… showing me where my room is?”

Dan looked up at him with confusion, “You don’t know where it is?”

Irritation began to fill Michael and he groaned, “Could you just show me please?”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I would like to rest for a bit, so if you would _please_ -”

Dan nodded, “Your room, yeah. Come on.” he stood up and walked around Michael to exit the room. Michael followed silently behind him as he walked across the hall and pulled open the door, “There you go. See you later, Gav.”

As Dan watched him, Michael noticed his cut again and reached out to touch around the edge of it softly, “Is it gonna be okay?”

Dan’s breath hitched slightly but Michael didn’t notice. Dan sighed, “Yeah, it’ll be fine, Gav. I told you it’ll he-”

“But it’s a neck wound, Dan. Weakest point, right?”

“...Yeah.”

After a moment, Michael dropped his hand and looked down, “Well, good night.”

Dan took a step back, “Night.”

Michael entered his-Gavin’s-room and shut the door behind him. He dropped to his bed and quickly drifted to sleep.

\---

Michael woke to a high pitched scream that echoed through the whole house. On instinct, he bolted out of his room to find the source of the scream which led him to the front door where Monty was running out of it. He followed Monty outside and the first thing he saw had him fighting back his own scream.

It was early in the morning and darkness enveloped the area but it was just bright enough to make out the silhouette of a head. Just a head. Its neck was savagely ripped apart and shoved onto a spike sitting right in their front yard. Blood dripped down the spike and had sprayed all over the bottom half of the head and it looked like the eyes were gouged out, the holes that were left were jagged as if someone cut into the bone.

Once Michael could look away from the crude warning, he saw where Monty went. Barbara was wrapped around him, her body trembling as she sobbed into his shoulder and he did his best to comfort her, rubbing her back softly.

Michael cringed as he glanced back at the oozing head so he tried his best to not look at it as the rest of the household filtered out of door. Dan was at the front of the crowd and grimaced at the sight before walking over to Michael and putting an arm around him. “I’m sorry, Gav.”

Michael glanced around at the others as they got a look of the head and once they did, they looked at Michael with one of the most pitying expressions he’d ever seen. Whoever this man with his head staked in the yard must have been important to Gavin. Michael put on a devastated face but he had no clue who this guy was.

“Christ.” Ryan’s voice made Michael jump and he glanced to his right where his companion phased in between a dark haired man and woman and glared. He watched him as he glanced them both up and down with a smile then look back at the head with a frown. He pressed some buttons on the hand-link and looked over at Michael, “This is Burnie… Burns? Oh, real name’s Michael. He was Gavin’s mentor in a way, they were very close.”

“Burnie…” Michael had mumbled it to himself but Dan must have heard him because he felt his grip tighten. Michael turned to Dan slightly, “I-I’m alright, Dan-”

Church cut him off with his whirring noises and Ryan slapped it around before he stopped making noise. He read over whatever had shown up on the screen and muttered, “Motherfucker.” under his breath before speaking louder, “We gotta talk.”

Michael continued as Ryan stopped, “I just… need to be alone for a bit, alright?”

Dan nodded and pressed a kiss to his forehead before dropping his arm and letting Michael walk back into the house. That was a little weird. Did Dan usually show that much affection to Gavin or was it because of Burnie? Michael shrugged it off for now, there were more pressing matters at the moment. He made his way back to his room and as he shut the door behind him, Ryan phased in beside him.

“What the fuck, Ryan?! Why didn’t you tell me about him?!”

“About who?”

“Burnie! You know, the guy with his head staked in the front _fucking_ yard?!”

“We didn’t know! Church was still looking through the files!”

“Fuck!”

“Michael, you… you can’t save everyone, alright? You’re not here for Burnie anyway.”

“Then why am I here, Ryan?”

“Well, um, Church says that they found the headless body of Dan Gruchy in the middle of the forest. They estimated his time of death was mid-afternoon… tomorrow. Over the next few days after his body is found, they find the headless bodies of you-Gavin-, Barbara and Miles before they find any of the heads. The rest of the household is killed the same way over the course of that week. They say that the murderers were rivals to Gavin’s makeshift family but they weren’t convicted for ten years.”

“So, I’m here to save Dan?”

“Church says there’s a 97.3% chance. Dan getting decapitated sets off some sort of chain reaction that leads to death of everyone out there. You have to stop them, Michael.”

“How am I going to stop them?”

“How do you think?”

“You’d probably try to fuck them to death or someth-”

“Michael, please, I’m much more classy than that.”

“Are you now?” Michael raised an eyebrow at him.

Ryan huffed indignantly, “Of course I am. Don’t look at me like that.”

Michael continued on with the look until Ryan sighed, “Whatever. I meant that you’re probably gonna have to kill them.”

“Oh.”

“I know you’re more of a goody-goody, but you’re here to save Gavin and his family, alright?”

“I know.”

“Look, do you believe that any of those people out there deserve to have their heads ripped off and their bodies thrown in the forest?”

“Nobody does.”

“Well, I don’t know about nobody…”

“Ryan!”

“Alright, alright. Just remember that though, okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Rye.”

“You’re welcome, Mikey.”

Michael stuck his tongue out at the nickname and Ryan rolled his eyes before opening the chamber door and stepping inside of it. Once Ryan left his vision, Michael sighed and flopped back onto the bed.

This hadn’t been the first time he had to kill someone during leap and it probably wouldn’t be his last, but Michael never could get over watching the life leave someone’s eyes because of what he had done. He had to kill whoever these rivals were though, if he ever wanted to leap and save Dan.

After being so abruptly woken, Michael decided to go back to sleep and figure how to solve the issue later.

\---

A few hours later, Dan woke him up with a gentle shake of his shoulder. “Hey, we gotta talk.”

Michael sluggishly sat up and turned to face Dan, “Uh, okay.”

“So Monty called a meeting after we calmed Barb down and he thinks we should try to confront the hunters, in a peaceful manner, and establish some sort of truce. He doesn’t want them to threaten all of our lives, so he thinks we should fix it now.”

“Alright… When are you going?”

“Probably sometime tomorrow afternoon. Did you want to come?”

_Shit._ “Um, n-no…but I don’t think we should go.”

“Why shouldn’t we? We have to resolve this before it gets out of hand! Look, I know you’re scared-”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m scared! There’s no resolution here! They want to kill you and you’re just giving them an easier fucking target!”

“Of course, there’s a resolution! Those stupid humans can’t kill us, come on!”

There it was again, mentioning humans like they were something foreign. Michael stared at him for a moment, confusion twisting his features then muttered, “You can’t know that, Dan.”

“And what? You can? Gav, I’ll be fine! This Burnie thing has just got you worried.”

“This has nothing to do with Burnie! I have every right to be concerned with yo-”

_**"Gavin!"**_  Dan’s tone made him flinch and he closed his mouth. Dan didn’t seem to notice and continued, _ **“I am going. End of fucking story.”**_ He spun around and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him so hard the knob trembled for a few moments after he left.

_If Dan refused to stay away from the hunters, that meant I had to come along on this “confrontation”. I just didn’t how well I could fight however many of these guys that fucking beheaded eight people. Hopefully I could convince Dan to let me come along._

Michael wandered around the house after that, talking to the others and trying to get any details about the hunters and what was even going on. The four girls were in a large training room, gym equipment set up around and several weapons sat on a table. They seemed to be practicing using katanas when Michael had stumbled upon the room. He spoke to them for a few minutes and from what they said, these hunters had been rivals to them for a very long time-like several generations long time-and despite their group trying to come to an agreement, it always ended in a bloodbath.

No one else was of much help because they either echoed the girls’ words or gave him a weird look. It wasn’t much of a morale boost but at least he wasn’t going in completely blind.

\---

The next morning, Michael is dragged out of bed and surprised to find Dan attached to the hand pulling him along.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

He doesn’t respond until they’re inside the training room Barb, Kara and Arryn were in the day before. “Practice.”

“...Practice?”

Dan dropped his wrist and walked over to the weapons table, completely ignoring Michael’s question. He picked up a jagged blade with a symbol covered wooden handle and twisted it around in his hand for a moment. Before Michael could ask again, Dan turned to face him and flicked the blade out of his hand. It flew directly in the direction of Michael’s chest and he ducked down in surprise, it barely missing his head as it sailed over him and made a dull thump as it collided with the wall.

Michael teetered on his toes before dropping fully on his feet and staring up at Dan with a look of bewilderment, “What the everloving _fuck_ was that?!”

He grinned and shrugged like he didn’t just try to throw a knife through his heart, “Just checking your reflexes.”

Anger flared in his chest at his obvious nonchalance and amusement, “Reflexes?! It is six in the fucking morning, you douche! Why are we doing this?!”

“You want to come with us to the confrontation, don’t you?”

“How would you know? I was arguing that _nobody_ should go!” _Nice job, idiot, you’re supposed to be convincing him to let you come with him not the other way around._

Dan just grinned at him, "Changed your mind though, yeah?"

Michael squinted at him, "I-I did."

"You were right, Gav. It's prideful and stupid to think they aren't at all dangerous. So... practice."

"Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense. Thanks for actually listening to me."

Dan took a few steps forward, putting a miniscule amount of space between them, "I always listen to you, but I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you yesterday, I'm just stressed out." He closed the rest of the distance between them to press their lips together softly.

Well, that answered Michael's question from yesterday. Gavin and Dan definitely had something going on between them and in the fifties, how bold of them.

Michael responded to the kiss and put a hand in Dan's hair. He knew he wasn't meant to get involved with other people during his leap but was there really any harm in making out with the guy? He was definitely make-out worthy with his stupid attractive face and wonderful dark hair. 

Michael let him wrap his arms around his waist and opened his mouth when Dan's tongue prodded at his closed lips. Dan's height was making it a bit difficult to continue so Michael hooked both legs around his hips and pulled himself up, moving his hands out of his hair to his neck. His breath hitched as Dan moved his hands to cup his ass, it was probably to keep him steady but Michael was enjoying the feeling more than necessary.

After a moment of his hands roaming Dan's neck, he realized the complete smoothness of his skin was odd. Didn't he have a neck wound?

He pulled back from Dan with eyebrows furrowed, "What happened to your neck?"

Dan mirrored his confusion, "It healed, didn't it?"

"That's what I'm saying! It healed that fast?"

"...Yeah? It wasn't even that serious of an injury. You've been way too worried about me lately, Gav. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, Dan. I'm fine." As Michael finished speaking, Ryan phased in and immediately smirked at the sight. Michael's legs were still wound around Dan's hips, his hands on his shoulder and neck and he flushed with mortification at Ryan finding him like this.

He gave him the deadliest glare he could muster that screamed _Go the fuck away, Ryan_ and with a roll of his eyes, he obliged.

Dan gave him an unconvinced and slightly confused look but Michael ignored it and climbed off of him. "So, practice right?"

"...Yeah." He pulled the blade out of the wall behind him and handed it to Michael, "Target practice."

Michael and Dan trained in a few different areas (and maybe there was some lingering touches during hand-to-hand combat but Michael wasn't going to complain) until Monty came in to tell them they were leaving.

\---

Monty, Michael, Dan, Barbara and Miles stood in the forest where the leap started and it didn’t look as incredibly cliche during the day. It looked almost pretty in the daylight, the sun softening the colors of wildlife. They stopped in a seemingly random area of land and stayed completely silent until a rowdy group of people started to gather in front of them. Many were wearing plaid and carried a weapon of some sort, blades mostly. The group outnumbered them by at least ten and a horrible feeling began to settle in Michael’s gut.

A dark haired woman with two katanas hanging from her sides stood in front of the rest of the group and silenced them with a raise of her hand. She looked to Monty and grinned, “Hello, Monty.”

“Cassidy.”

“So, what would you like to ‘discuss’?”

“A treaty that we can actually follow through with.”

One of her hands gripped the handle of her katana and she grit out, “It was your little fuck that killed Kev. Don’t you dare-”

“You’re always so quick to violence. I have no intentions of hurting you, none of us do.”

“Then why don’t you explain that to him?” she whipped out the katana and pointed at Michael with it.

Monty curled and uncurled his fingers, irritation evident in his features, “You know he is new to this.”

“That gives him the right to kill my brother?! You are monsters, that is what you always will be and there can never be peace between us!”

“ _We’re_ the monsters? We don’t leave disembodied heads in your front yard, do we? Gavin had a right to be afraid and I’m sure your brother wasn’t being very kind to him anyway.”

“Kev was  _not_ going to do anyth-”

“How would you know? You don’t live in his head, he could’ve fully planned on killing him.”

“Well, maybe he fucking should have.”

Before Michael could think about it, he rushed forward and roughly pulled the katana out of Cassidy’s hand. He distantly heard Dan’s yell to stop but ignored it and threw the blade behind him, gripping her head and twisting it harshly to the left until it made a sickening crack and she collapsed. _**“Fuck you.”**_

There was an onslaught of screaming plaid clad people and he began tearing their throats right out of their necks or taking their blades and cutting them apart. There was a flurry of blood and screams until everyone other than Michael, Monty, Dan, Miles and Barbara was sprawled on the ground.

Michael felt blood roll down his face and coat his hands and tried not to tremble at all the violence he just caused. He looked back at Dan and his face was twisted with some emotion Michael couldn’t place and then blue light was surrounding him.

 

****  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I spent a lot of time on this so any and all kudos, comments or even just reading it will make me a very very happy child thank you for your time!!!


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